Girls Water Polo: South Pasadena Cruises Past San Luis Obispo

There have been many victories the girls water polo team can proud of this season.

Wednesday afternoon’s victory certainly was one to remember. Facing a quality opponent in visiting San Luis Obispo in the first round of the CIF-Southern Section Division III playoffs, coach Robert Echeverria’s team was remarkable in winning 25-3.

“Believe it or not this was probably the best game of the season. We’ve been watching film of every game we’ve played,” Echeverria said. “We watch our mistakes and today we were a different team. They were the team I’ve been waiting all year for.”

South Pasadena (25-2) scored eight goals in the first quarter before San Luis Obispo (16-10) was able to get on the scoreboard.

Freshman Devin Grab and senior Anna-Lena Hathaway each scored eight goals to lead South Pasadena. Tyler Brown scored five goals and Rachel Clauss added four.

Hathaway actually was impressed with her team’s defense and not offense.

“We really played our defense, which we’ve been working on, and we ran the plays we’ve been working on,” Hathaway said.  “Everything we’ve been doing in practice, we did today which is fun and exciting to see.”

South Pasadena moves on to the quarterfinals of the playoffs Friday where they will face the winner of Rio Mesa (Oxnard) and Whittier.

Echeverria expects his team will have to travel to face Rio Mesa, the team that knocked his squad out in the semifinals playoffs last season.

“I think we’re a better team this year,” Echeverria said of his team, which won the Oxnard Tournament earlier this season. “I think the girls realized how much it hurt to do all that work and lose like that. I think these girls have something to prove. I’m hoping we can win that and get back to the semis. Based off what I saw today, it looked good.”

Brown said she too felt her team is peaking at the right moment.

 “Honestly, I think we’ve been really focused in practices and we have been feeding off each other’s positive energy,” Brown said. “It doesn’t matter what you hear about the other teams. You have to fight from beginning to end, each game, each goal. We can’t afford to let down later in the playoffs.”

San Luis Obispo coach Kristin Poochigian said she knew South Pasadena would be tough to beat, especially after a drive that was more than three hours long.

“Our problem was we didn’t do the basic things we do in a normal game,” Poochigian said. “I don’t know if it was a mental block or because we drove all the way down here. Usually we’re a lot better at stopping the counter attacks, and we’re a lot faster than we normally are, and we take better shots."